Better Call Saul, Season 2 Episode 2: “Cobbler”

Mike: It’s Ehrmantraut. You still morally flexible? If so, I might have a job for you.
Jimmy: Where and when?

Nacho will be sure to tell that to the guys at the chop shop. Image courtesy of AMC.

Being morally flexible isn’t as easy as Jimmy thought it would be – at least not with Kim. I wrote last week that I didn’t quite understand why Jimmy decided to take the job, and of course it was Kim. I have no idea what their relationship is, but Jimmy wants to find out. He’s also finding out Kim’s limits to his moral flexibility. As they eat pie together at the end of the episode, Jimmy tells Kim about the story he spun the police for the world’s stupidest drug dealer. Kim knows who Jimmy is and she likes him anyway, but upon learning that he falsified evidence, she tenses up. Kim takes her role as a lawyer seriously, and she warns Jimmy that if the wrong people hear about this, he’ll be disbarred. It got even worse when she found out that this wasn’t even a Davis and Maine client, but some pro bono work. Disbarment is a high risk for a client that doesn’t even pay.

As we saw last week, Jimmy’s not entirely comfortable with his new situation, as the shot of him in his new office echoed (or foreshadowed) the shot of Gene sitting in the dumpster room. This week we have even more visual cues that Jimmy doesn’t fit in this world, as the “World’s 2nd Best Lawyer” mug Kim gives him doesn’t fit into the cup holder in his new company car (I hear The Good Wife did a similar thing with Alicia’s chair recently – I should catch up with that show now that it’s definitely ending). At least work is going well, he’s found some more inconsistencies in Sandpiper’s Residency Agreement and the meetings with HHM are going well, at least until Chuck turns up.

I didn’t really miss Chuck last week, but he was always going to come back eventually. Jimmy and Chuck’s dad must have left quite early in their lives, because all of Jimmy’s daddy issues are actually brother issues. I don’t know what happened to make Chuck Jimmy’s caretaker, but as Jimmy said last week, everything he ever did was to impress Chuck, to live up to expectations. Since Chuck’s expectations of Jimmy are very low, now he’s just waiting for Jimmy to fall. Chuck showing up at the meeting threw him off, and that’s probably half the reason Jimmy accepted the job Mike offered him. Learning that the person you admired most in the world thinks of you as a lesser person causes Jimmy’s doubt to resurface, and he gives into his impulses. Jimmy wants to feel the rush of the con, so he acts as a lawyer for our “Playuh” in a police interview. This development wasn’t unexpected, but it came earlier in the season than I’d guessed.

I like Jimmy McGill, and based on what I’ve seen on The Good Wife, he’d fit right in at whatever that lawfirm is currently called. They’re obsessed with intrigue. Or maybe he could work with Elsbeth or Eli or something. Right now though, he doesn’t know where he belongs. He has the legitimacy he’s always wanted, but after seeing his brother, he went and committed a crime. Kim was shocked at what Jimmy did, but Chuck wouldn’t have been. He’s just Slipping Jimmy.

Other Thoughts

Rhea Seehorn is great in this. It’s and understated role, but a really good one, and she plays it perfectly. I want Jimmy to be with Kim and not become Saul Goodman, so everything about this show is working.

This was a good episode! However the best episode of television I saw today was the most recent episode of Jane the Virgin, which was SO GOOD YOU GUYS.

Once Howard is out of earshot, Chuck tells Jimmy that he’s there to “Bear witness.” He was always a dick, but in case anyone was wondering, he is definitely a terrible brother.

I loved everything to do with Mike and Nacho ripping off what’s his face.

Of course you can compartmentalise your criminal activity and still call the police as a victim of crime. They’re completely unrelated things.

I am looking forward to the next wannabe criminal who shows up at Mike’s booth. We thought Walt tried his patience.